(F) Fosythe, Dall W. 2004. Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting. Second ed. Updated. Georgetown Univ. Press.

(M) Mikesell, John L. 2007. Fiscal Administration. 7th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Fisher, Ian.  2000. "Somali Businesses Stunted by Too-Free Enterprise." New York Times. August 10, 2000.

Cornia, Gary C., Ray D. Nelson, and Andrea Wilko.  2004.  "Fiscal Planning, Budgeting, and Rebudgeting Using Revenue Semaphores."  Public Administration Review.  64(2): 164-179 (March/April).

Conlan, Tim.  2006.  "From Cooperative to Opportunistic Federalism:  Reflections on the Half-Century Anniversary of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations."  Public Administration Review 66(5): 663-676 (Sep/Oct).

Downs, George W. and Patrick D. Larkey.  1986.  The Search For Government Efficiency:  From Hubris to Helplessness.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.  Chapter 5.

Fox, William.  2006.  "Hawaii's General Excise Tax:  Should the Base be Changed?"  2005-2007 Tax Review Commission Report, Appendix C.  State of Hawaii.

Gilmour, John B. and David E. Lewis.  2006. "Does Performance Budgeting Work? An Examination of the Office of Management and Budget's PART Scores." Public Administration Review.  66(5): 742-752 (Sep/Oct).

Higgs, Robert.  1987.  Crisis and Leviathan:  Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government.  New York:  Oxford University Press.  Chapter 2.

Hou, Yilin.  2006.  "Budgeting for Fiscal Stability Over the Business Cycle:  A Countercyclical Fiscal Policy and the Multiyear Perspective on Budgeting."  Public Administration Review.  66(5): 730-741 (Sep/Oct).

Kloha, Philip, Carol S. Weissert, and Robert Kleine. 2005.  "Developing and Testing a Composite Model to Predict Local Fiscal Stress." Public Administration Review 65(3): 313-323 (May/June).

Lindert, Peter H.  2004.  Growing Public:  Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century.  Vol I: The Story.  New York:  Cambridge University Press.  Chapter 12.

Rubin, Marilyn Marks and John R. Bartle.  2005.  "Integrating Gender into Government Budgets:  A New Perspective."  Public Administration Review.  65(3):  259-272 (May/June).

Tax Review Commission, State of Hawaii.  Report of the 2005-2007 Tax Review Commission.

City and County of Honolulu, FY 2006 Budget.

State of Hawaii, Multi-Year Program and Financial Plan and Executive Budget, 2007-2013.
State of Hawaii, Executive Supplemental Budget FY 2007.
State of Hawaii Constitution, Article VII.
Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 37.

U.S. Federal Budget, FY 2007.
U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "The Budget System and Concepts." FY2007.

1. Attendance and participation is important because we meet only weekly and because this may be a small class. Each week, participants will be expected to attend class AND to make a posting on the discussion section of our course in WebCT. The weekly contribution must be posted BEFORE class each week, and may comment on the readings to be discussed, pick up an issue raised in a previous class, or discuss related issues found in newspapers or other periodicals. The purpose of this posting is to encourage you to actively think about, and apply, the ideas and concepts that we discuss; and to encourage others to engage your observations and ideas. The postings need not be long, but they should be substantive in terms of content.

   Because unexpected events happen to all of us, up to two missed classes may be made up by a substantial posting in the week of the absence. A third missed class will negatively affect the final grade in the course. A fourth missed class will result in an Incomplete or failing grade.

2. Project: You will each choose an organizational unit of the State of Hawaii to follow during the 2007 Legislative Session. The unit may be an entire department, a division within the department, or another unit (chosen in consultation with me). Your general task is to follow the budgetary issues related to this unit over the course of the semester. Sources of information include, but are not limited to, legislative testimony, newspaper (or other news) articles, interviews or conversations with participants, press releases, and legislative hearings. I would like you to attend at least one legislative hearing related to budget issues for the unit you have chosen (fairly frequently, legislative hearings take place in the evenings).
   1. On February 9, you will submit your First Project Report. This is a short, written report that describes your unit, its mission and/or goals, its clients, its budgetary status, and the current executive budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2007 and beyond. By “budgetary status” I mean background information on the number of dollars and positions in the unit (such as last year’s appropriation and number of positions). The report should include a discussion of any issues that seem particularly relevant to the unit and/or its budget. The report should not exceed 6 pages (double-spaced).
   2. On April 6, you will submit the Second Project Report. This will document what has happened to the budget request since the first report. What changes have been proposed and made? What has been the response of the unit and/or department in testimony? What other information (press releases, news items, etc.) sheds light on the path of the unit’s budget request and related issues? Please pay attention to the apparent strategies employed by the players to accomplish their goals (primarily the unit, but also potentially the department, the governor, and key legislators). You may want to look over Memo 7 in Forsythe early in this process.
   3. On April 27 or May 4, you will make a class presentation on your unit and the “final” condition of its budget request (“final” is in quotation marks because the process may not be complete by this time). The presentation should include any background information that will be necessary for your classmates to understand the unit and its issues. To the extent feasible, you should attempt to incorporate, or link to, the budgetary concepts/issues that we covered or discussed in class. The purpose of this presentation is to display your ability to identify and apply the concepts and ideas to the budget issues for your unit. On the same day, you will hand in a written reflection piece in which you review what you have experienced in this project. I would like you to do this at (at least) two levels: (1) In thinking about the budgetary process as applied to your unit, what are the three most important “lessons” that you learned? How might the unit have been more effective in pursuing its budgetary goals? What might it have done differently? What could it do in the future to better position itself? These are only suggested questions of the kinds of issues that may be relevant; feel free to add/substitute your own.
      (2) With respect to this course project, what worked well? What didn’t? How might the project be structured in the future to make it a more effective, or more interesting, learning tool?

Date Modified:  02/09/07